Source: Donna Kay
Over the weekend, Israel came out firing against last week’s UN Security Council’s vote to “censure” the Jewish nation’s settlements on the West Bank. At the same time, leaders in the small country put the nation on high security alert, anticipating escalations in terrorist attacks from those supporting Palestinian claims to the land.
“As I told [Secretary of State] John Kerry on Thursday, friends don’t take friends to the Security Council,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said, according to a Fox News Report.
However, the Israeli government has taken what Netanyahu calls a “shameful ambush” a step further, claiming President Obama colluded to write the resolution and ensure the vote was a success.
The Obama administration has denied those accusations, but Netanyahu’s spokesman, David Keyes, begs to differ claiming Israel has solid proof.
“We have rather ironclad information from sources in both the Arab world and internationally that this was a deliberate push by the United States and in fact they helped create the resolution in the first place,” David Keyes said on Fox News’ America’s News HQ.
As a permanent member at the Security Council table and the protector of Israel , the US has the responsibility to veto any actions that are a threat to the security of Israel. However, instead of ordering US Ambassador Susan Power to veto the measure, Obama ordered an abstention, which ended up being counted as a “yea” vote that passed the resolution.
Abstaining from a vote is a essentially a vote for the winning side, which isn’t the case in this situation. The White House has confirmed that the order to abstain came directly from Obama.
As reported here, an unnamed high level Israeli official told Reuters news service prior to the vote, Obama’s intended abstention from the vote was “a violation of a core commitment to protect Israel at the U.N.”
But Obama’s activities reach much further than just an abstention, says the Israeli government.
The whole bizarre set of events started hours before the vote when Netanyahu in desperation contacted President-elect Donald Trump to intervene in the pending resolution. Trump quickly responded to the long-standing loyal ally’s request, contacting the sponsor of the resolution, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi. Whatever the two leaders discussed worked, since two hours before the vote on the settlements, el-Sisi postponed the vote; but not for long.
Within 24 hours, the resolution had new sponsors and the measure was passed, according to reports from Al Jazeera.
“The resolution was put forward at the 15-member council for a vote on Friday by New Zealand, Malaysia, Venezuela and Senegal a day after Egypt withdrew it under pressure from Israel and US president-elect Donald Trump.”
It is the Egyptian connection, Israel officials are saying they have proof Obama pushed for and help create the resolution from the beginning, according to a new CNN report.
In the report, an Israeli official maintains:
“The administration tried to conceal its involvement by having Palestinian official Saeb Erekat demand that Egypt submit the resolution as the representative of the Arab League. This was intended to provide plausible deniability for the US and now can be seen in an administration spokesmen’s evasive denials,” the official said.
He goes on to say the Israeli government believes after the resolution was withdrawn by Egypt, Obama continued his quest to see destructive measure move forward by pressuring other Security Council member countries. The measure was re-introduced for the Friday vote by four new countries.
In an unprecedented move, the Israeli foreign ministry summoned the ambassadors from 10 countries supporting the resolution and as a result of those discussions Israel says it has proof of Obama’s betrayal. The meetings led to Netanyahu’s Mondays orders to “temporarily limit all working ties with the embassies of the 12 UN Security Council members who voted in favor of Friday’s resolution.”
Though none of the ambassadors met with Netanyahu, he did meet with the US ambassador Dan Shapiro over the weekend, and then began his public attacks of Obama on Sunday.
Speaking about the resolution on Sunday, Netanyahu said, “we have no doubt that the Obama administration initiated it, stood behind it, coordinated on the wording and demanded that it be passed.”
The fight is long from over according to the Israeli Prime Minister, “We will do all it takes so Israel emerges unscathed from this shameful decision,” he said. Netanyahu’s office released a transcript of the his remarks on his official website.
Other actions Israeli is taking are canceling all aid programs to resolution cosponsor Senegal and reevaluating $7 million of UN funding; cancels all visits of Senegal and New Zealands non-resident ambassadors to Israel as well as diplomatic steps against those who cosponsored the measure.
Netanyahu also stated Israel is looking forward to working with the Trump administration, one who will be a true ally. He said he is encouraged by Israel’s “friends in the United States” who are standing with his country and that “they understand how reckless and destructive” the resolution to peace in the Middle East. According Israeli Ambassador to the US, Ron Dermer, Israel will be presenting all the documents proving Obama’s collusion to the next administration, referring to Trump.
Trump has made no bones on where he stands as the next US President when it comes to Israel. Not only did he stop the initial security council vote, but sent out a tweet after Friday’s UN vote to reassure Israel that, “things will be different” when he takes office Jan. 20.
It appears Obama’s latest dangerous “diplomacy” is just one more irresponsible act in a long list of last minute actions that will leave the US and the world in even greater danger. Instead of using his final days as most past presidents have done ensuring a “smooth” transition, he continues to leave a legacy of destructive measures leaving Trump to fix the mess.
But as us “deplorables” know, President Trump will be more ready to undo this horrific deal that betrays our ally!